Smith: It went well. We haven’t locked anyone yet, except for the people we all know are coming back. Jason Lee and Ben Affleck and Jason Mewes and myself will of course all be there. It looks like Matty Damon and Chris Rock are also coming back. But there are other roles to fill in, people we haven’t seen in the flick yet.

So when are you gonna announce a title on this thing?

Smith: Probably over the course of the next two months. I think once we lock the rest of the cast, we’ll say what it is. Trust me — we’re trying to make it as painless as possible. Unlike a dentist appointment.

Director-writer Kevin Smith (Dogma, Chasing Amy) has a new column over at a Web site called psycomic.com, which is primarily a comics Web site. Smith, however, is penning a weekly column called ‘Developing the Monkey’ on the making of his next film, the working title of which is VA 5 (short for View Askew 5).

The first column went up last week. The upcoming columns, I’m told, are going to be “dishy as hell” with revelations about who turned Smith and his producers down for meetings, who’s getting cast beyond the usual Smith regulars, and other inside snipings. Sounds good to me. Worth checking out.